LAST CALL - JERRY HERSHIPS

Last Call - Pg 163

   Worship leaders should be like the finger pointing to the moon. No one should be looking at the finger. They should be trying to find the moon.

Last Call - Pg 155

   Everything we do is based around one question: Does this word/action/thought bring more love or less love into the world? In short, does it make us better disciples?

Last Call - Pg 152

   We understand forgiveness—kind of. Someone says they are sorry, and we forgive them—end of story. Grace is a whole other beast. Grace says, "I know you don't deserve to be forgiven. Hell, you ain't even asked to be forgiven. You know what? You are forgiven anyway."

Last Call - Pg 148

   They are a lot of guys who look probably like the picture in your head: unkempt, dirty, dressed in old clothes, and in some cases, smelly. You know, the kingdom of God.

Last Call - Pg 145

   I always struggle with faith communities that say being with the poor isn't their thing. I think we are all different, and different churches emphasize different things. Depending on our context and the people we serve, it is going to look different for everybody. But Jesus did not make caring for the poor optional, and to see serving the poor as just a "spoke in the wheel" of being a Christian and a follower of Jesus? I have to call that bullshit.

Last Call - Pg 144

   It is often so easy to lump the poor and homeless all together, as if there is a step-by-step instruction booklet on how to end up homeless. Step 1: Use up all your resources. Step 2: Develop an active addiction. Step 3: Become unemployable. Step 4: Lose your shit.
   It simply doesn't work that way.

Last Call - Pg 144

   The folks in the park—our "friends without homes" as we call them, because that's all they really are—have the same problems. They just exert a lot less energy pretending they don't. It is like all that effort to put up a facade got too exhausting and they said, "Screw it. I'm a mess. Moving on." That is refreshing.

Last Call - Pg 139

   I am stunned by how often I see "God stuff" happening all around me. I have a hard time thinking it just started showing up. There was a shift. I think that shift happened the second I started actually looking around and watching for it. When I did, I realized it was everywhere.

Last Call - Pg 125

   I think Jesus was fun! At the very least, he wasn't against it. Hell, his first miracle was turning water into wine. How totally badass is that? And not some generic box wine or two-buck chuck. Jesus turned the wine into awesome, killer Brunello di Montalcino! 2006!

Last Call - Pg 125

   I think Jesus was a badass. He was a charming, likable, passionate badass who fought for the underdog and made everybody feel welcome—especially those who no one else accepts. We all have known that guy. The guy who never started a fight but would never back down from one either, especially if he felt someone was taking advantage of someone who couldn't fight back. We all dig those people. We all want to be those people—the doers of good, the defenders of justice. We need superhero Jesus.

Last Call - Pg 117

   I am continuing to do this minute by minute. To this day, I am still not sure what the potter has in store. I hope it's a killer vase or a really badass bowl. I just don't want to be a crappy ashtray.

Last Call - Pg 116

   I have realized that through the years I have slowly but surely let the world squelch my joy and happiness. I have too often tried to be cool at the cost of silliness and fun. I have too often reached yet again for a black shirt when a pink one would have been fun. That sucks.

Last Call - Pg 115

   Anyone who has gone to college or celebrated St. Patrick's Day knows that a nine a.m. drunk is not an impossibility! God did make Bloody Marys and mimosas.

Last Call - Pg 111

   I find myself asking if we have made it easier to call ourselves followers just so we can say we have more people on the team.
   There is a part of me that wants a smaller team—but one that's more badass, more over-the-top committed to doing our damnedest to live like Christ and not really caring if others join us. That would probably be a pretty small group. But as long as there is a desire to go out there and love, really love, then everyone is welcome on the team. We'd be like ninjas for Jesus, going out and doing radical special-ops-type acts of love and compassion. Rogue disciples, coming together to do extraordinary acts of grace and kindness—how killer would that be? I can tell you exactly how killer that would be.
   Pretty damn killer.

Last Call - Pg 109

   If I like the blues but country does nothing for me, does that mean I don't love music? Does it mean I hate tradition? Does it mean I am attacking music? No. It means I have a deep, strong, true desire to connect with music, but in a certain form.

Last Call - Pg 104

   I remember moments at St. Andrew when there wasn't enough money to help people who came to our door because we simply did not allocate enough money to outreach—and at the same time there were $10,000 pieces of art in our entryway. It is heartbreaking to know we can't help a family that is struggling, but we have multiple baby grand pianos. There is no question that affluent churches do a lot of good. It is rarely about one instance; it is a constant monitoring. When buildings get built and Jumbotron screens get hung while people lose their jobs, benefits get cut, and furlough days get enacted, something is wrong. If we are  spending more money on sheet music than outreach, something ain't right.

Last Call - Pg 101

   If we don't know whom to love, it's a simple test: Is anybody else loving that person? No? Then that's the one!

Last Call - Pg 99

   It is not the service of worship that pulls them in, but the service of people. And it is not "works that get you into heaven" thinking that is pulling them there. Most of our folks believe in a God of such unspeakable grace that we are all okay on that front.

Last Call - Pg 99

   And saying you love people is not the same as getting out there and actually loving people.